Bitpanda Fined €70,000 in Austria's First MiCA Case

Austria's Financial Market Authority fined Bitpanda GmbH €70,000 for breaches of the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. The case is the FMA's first published penalty under MiCA and centers on disclosure and marketing requirements tied to a token launch.

The FMA said Bitpanda failed to submit a required crypto white paper, the disclosure document issuers must file before marketing a token, at least 20 working days before publication. The regulator did not name the cryptocurrency linked to the case.

Bitpanda also released a marketing communication before publishing the white paper, the FMA said. MiCA requires firms to complete key disclosure steps before promoting a crypto asset to the public. A second notice fell short of that standard in other ways. It lacked a statement that regulators had not reviewed or approved the document, and said nothing about the provider's full responsibility for its contents. The same communication omitted a telephone number and an email address, details that form part of the information requirements for certain crypto marketing documents under MiCA.